Stav Ziv
Forward, Dec. 15, 2022
“… whether they’re following their own personal observance or taking those of their audience into account, the groups have religious reasons to limit their membership. Also business reasons.”
Plenty has changed about holiday a cappella videos since “Candlelight” exploded on YouTube over a decade ago like a 21st-century Hanukkah miracle no one thought to pray for: A group of singers, fittingly called the Maccabeats, hoped their video would bring joy to their family and friends. They ended up reaching millions of strangers, too.
The videos also multiplied. One group became several — as Six13 and Y-Studs A Cappella also became reliable video-makers. Productions became more elaborate. Parodies remained king, but sometimes pop songs made way for Broadway or Hollywood hits. Occasionally, serious ballads replaced lighthearted tunes, and once in a while a familiar holiday song or prayer took center stage.
But one thing has remained constant. The videos we’ve come to expect — the ones that now arrive without fail every Hanukkah and often for Passover and sometimes Purim and Rosh Hashanah too, that keep going viral year after year, that reach hundreds of thousands and sometimes millions of views — are all quite male (and quite pale, for that matter).
There’s a vibe: a group of guys singing together. At first glance over a decade ago, perhaps that wasn’t so unusual. Jewish or not, single-gender a cappella groups are typical on college campuses and beyond (though some groups in recent years have made the decision to leave gender labels behind). And in some parts of the Jewish world, segregation between genders is commonplace.
But as the years went by and video after video got passed around, it became clear most viewers were only seeing men singing. Among the super viral hits that have comprised this modern tradition, you’d be hard pressed to find examples from a mixed-gender or all-women group. In fact, it’s hard to find examples of any women singing at all.
If to be Jewish is to ask questions, then let’s ask this one, which has gotten louder and frankly impossible to ignore: Why aren’t any women singing in those viral holiday a cappella videos? source
